Notice
by ArtsyChick
Summary: When did she become so beautiful? he wondered absently. Or maybe she had always been beautiful. He had just never taken the time to notice. KakaSaku.


I forgot just how much I love Kakashi and Sakura and how much I've missed them! I was thinking about _Duty Before Honor_ by Silvershine and when Kakashi talks about when he fell in love with Sakura. This is my take on how Kakashi realized that KakaSaku was meant to be :)

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><p>He didn't remember when he first noticed her. He could remember when he first <em>met <em>her and when he first _saw _her, but as for taking notice… well, that memory was difficult to place.

It was right after Naruto left with Master Jiraiya. That was when Sakura mysteriously grew a backbone and started behaving like a true kunoichi, instead of just a silly little girl.

If he thought really, _really _hard about it, he could name the place, the time, the _exact _moment when he had fallen for her.

It was after training one day. Ever since she had begun studying with Lady Tsunade, Sakura had been more gung-ho about training with him. Although sparring with her former teacher was nothing short of exhausting, she would frequently seek Kakashi out between missions and ask if he needed a sparring partner.

Kakashi always shrugged. "If you'd like," he'd say.

Their training sessions started out easy enough—a light warm-up, hands only. Then came target practice, review of some oft forgotten but extremely useful jutsu, and finally a battle simulation. They would take turns stalking the other before attacking, initiating a full-out battle.

Each time, Kakashi invariably won.

One afternoon, it was Kakashi's turn to attack Sakura. He crouched in a tree, tempted to pull out _Icha Icha _and read a few pages, but not trusting his former student to behave herself long enough for him to catch more than a few sentences.

She was standing in the middle of the clearing, slowly walking in circles. One hand was tucked into her hip pouch, the other faintly glowing blue with chakra. Kakashi smiled. She was so cute when she was trying to be tough.

Wait. _What?_

Kakashi shook his head and decided it was time to end the suspense. With the sun beating down on his bare arms and on the back of his neck, he darted from the trees surrounding Training Ground 3 and attempted to punch the pink-haired kunoichi. Sakura turned, ducked, and swung her leg out, narrowly missing his ankles.

Kakashi easily dodged her chakra-enhanced fists, not even breaking into a sweat. He drew a kunai and made to slash her arm, but she blocked his attack with a kunai of her own. Their knives clashed together, sending sparks flying between their eyes. He spun on his heel and acted as if he was going to kick her. She fell for the distraction and he leaped at her.

He could hear the breath rush from her lungs as they crashed to the earth, but just as he made to grab her wrists and disarm her, she smiled and vanished in a puff of smoke. Before he could turn and make a counterattack, the real Sakura—not a Shadow Clone—tackled him from behind.

Suddenly he was lying on his back with Sakura straddling his waist, her calves squeezing his thighs so he couldn't kick her off. While one hand gripped his wrists, the other clenched a kunai knife, held inches from his throat. His grip went limp and one squeeze from her chakra-coated fists caused him to release the knife entirely.

They stayed in this position for what felt—at least to Kakashi—like hours. Her chest heaved up and down and her green eyes glinted with determination and a hint of surprise. Sweat trickled across her forehead and down her nose before dripping onto his neck and her hair clung together in sticky clumps, although Kakashi couldn't imagine it in a more attractive style.

After what seemed like ages—but was really only seconds—Sakura breathed one sweet word.

"Concede?"

Kakashi slowly nodded. The knife was removed and he was allowed to sit up, never once pulling his eyes away from hers. _When did she become so beautiful_? he wondered absently.

Or maybe she had always been beautiful. He had just never taken the time to notice.

Offering him her hand, Sakura pulled him to his feet and shook out her tangled hair while he brushed off his vest. As he did, he glanced at her again.

When had her body developed into that of a woman? He could remember when she was as flat as a board on both sides, but now she had grown and curved in all the right places. Sure, she had a well-built body and extraordinarily pretty face, that certainly wasn't enough to send him reeling.

Suddenly, Sakura threw her arms around his waist and jerked him into a painful hug. It took him a minute to realize that the damp spots on his shirt were not from perspiration, but her tears seeping into the cloth.

"Thank you for letting me win," she whispered, her voice breaking midsentence.

Kakashi, a little shocked at her gratitude, couldn't decide what to do with his hands. They flailed uselessly in the air before he finally settled them on her shoulders.

"I didn't let you win, Sakura," he replied softly. "That was all you."

She pulled back and stared up at him, her green eyes wide and shining. He'd never thought she had looked more beautiful.

"Really?" she murmured, incredulous tears streaking her cheeks and pooling above her lips.

Kakashi suddenly felt a powerful temptation to tilt her head up and press his lips against her own shapely mouth. In fact, he had never felt such a strong impulse to kiss anyone before. But he didn't.

Instead, he smiled. "Would I lie to you, Sakura?"

For a second, he thought she was going to kiss him too. She pursed her lips and her eyelids fluttered and he thought she leaned a little closer, but she just buried her nose in his chest and tightened her grip.

That was it. In that one instant when she was sweet and innocent and vulnerable, he realized everything had changed. He was no longer the same man, and he knew he could never look at Sakura the same way again.

Kakashi had never been one to indulge in the "softer passions," even when he was young and in possession of raging hormones. But as his pink-haired student continued to cling to him and he became achingly aware of her every movement, he quietly dismissed rule twenty-five. His notice of her would most likely cause nothing but awkward moments, uncomfortable silences, and many cold showers.

But the strange thing was… he didn't care.


End file.
